Light And Hope This Christmas

The image of the man, woman and baby in the darkened stable has had a powerful hold on people’s imaginations over millennia.

What makes it so powerful? Maybe it’s because so many can identify with the man or the woman, huddled in darkness, turned away from the inn, apart from family.

How many people now feel displaced, not ‘at home’ in their surroundings? How many suffer the darkness of loneliness, betrayal and rejection? How many dwell in the shadow of illness and grief?

Mary and Joseph are first time parents- how many live with the anxiety of uncertainty about their actions, about the future for themselves and the family? The material world is not always a hospitable place.

But look closer! There is the baby, a universal symbol of hope and love. But there’s more: a light glowing through, and out from, the baby, and the light casts out the darkness, and the darkness has no power against the light.

The light is the sign of God in a human life, re-creating lives. In a world of uncertainty, the God of creation, life and love is still at work. I have seen many lives transformed by God’s presence.

At Christmas, those who have found the glory of this joy gather to give thanks for, and share, this most wonderful inner peace.  Come and join us and, wherever you are, may you know God’s blessings of joy.

Reflection from Ven Dr Rosemary Dunn

Archdeacon of Mackay

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